


The Bite on Your Shoulder

by Minuial



Category: The Fisher Queen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-30
Updated: 2014-04-30
Packaged: 2018-01-21 08:22:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1544144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minuial/pseuds/Minuial
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things do not settle down once your father is buried and gone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Bite on Your Shoulder

**Author's Note:**

> Let it be known that in the world exists a stunning writer named Alyssa Wong. She is the creator of a phenomenal short story called "The Fisher Queen." I write this as a paean to Ms. Wong and her mermaids, though it is a poor imitation of her work. 
> 
> If you haven't read "The Fisher Queen," download the May/June digest of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction on Kindle.

Things do not settle down once your father is buried and gone.

Your fellow fishermen may be snug in the stomachs of Japanese mermaid connoisseurs, but there are still so many others to contend with. Iris still flinches when she sees her friend at school. You see eyes trailing after May, who is beginning to blossom. Some of your neighbors have begun discussing taking over your father’s fishing boat for you. All around your small wooden hut, the world is closing in on three orphan girls.

But the bite on your shoulder throbs. It throbs when thin-lipped Chang from the docks offers you a scanty sum for the trawler, his greasy fingers lingering just a little too long as he pats your hand in supposed sympathy. It throbs when Sunan’s widow hints that a marriage between May and her eldest son—also a fisherman specializing in mermaid harvest—would be advantageous for both families so affected by the recent tragedy. It throbs when you go in for a parent-teacher conference for Iris, and the teacher tells you that despite Iris’ excellent grades she cannot reasonably hope to become a biologist when she has no father to support her. Outside the classroom door you hear some of the boys in her class snicker and mutter about the only prospects left for Iris and how they would be her first customers.

You can’t turn all the men and women in the world into mermaids. But you do the next best thing.

You carefully pick Chang’s hand from yours, smile, and tell him firmly that you hope to do business with him when you haul in your first catch. You have to give it to him—he raises his eyebrows, but he straightens his back and replies that he’ll see what you’ve got. And when you arrive back the next week with a hold packed with tigerfish, lionfish, and yellow fin, he gives you a handshake and a fair price. When he asks about the mermaids, you say that you’ve lost your appetite for them after the last fated trip. He grumbles, but understands.

Sunan’s widow is dismissive of you at first. When you begin to do well and start hiring wide-eyed youngsters new to the business, she grows restive and then angry that you continue to decline the match. Once, you come back early to find her hammering on the door of your hut with her son and a wedding party waiting behind her. After that incident, you instruct May and Iris to stay at the Changs’. You’ve become Chang’s best source for non-mermaid fish, and he is a fair businessman who holds true to his deals. Also, your plight has earned you the loyalty of his unexpectedly feisty wife. She promises to beat off Sunan’s widow should she try this again, wielding her wok as proof.

Iris suffers once more in that high school of hers. Three boys corner her one day after school and beat her to the brink of senselessness, telling her she will amount to nothing and that her good-for-nothing sister is such a freak for succeeding as a fisherwoman, she must be mermaid-spawn. When she shows up at your door, you realize that her book remains clutched between her bloodied hands. Thankfully at this point you’ve earned enough to be able to send her to the hospital. Incensed at her sister’s treatment, May contacts the newspapers and the story blows up. The boys are reprimanded, albeit not as much as you’d like. Your family earns the resentment of some families in your neighborhood, but the country learns of Iris and her passion for marine biology. An anonymous donor funds her examination fees once she’s healed, and a college in Ho Chi Minh City gives her a substantial scholarship.

Things do not settle down. There are bills to pay and unscrupulous suitors to ward off and your sisters to nurture. There are young apprentices you must teach, telling them about the atrocities other boats commit on mermaids and ensuring that they do not become like your father. There are nets to mend and fish to catch.

But sometimes, on still and quiet nights out on the ocean, you stand alone on the deck and listen for mermaid song. They don’t scream anymore, once you’ve stopped fishing for them. They don’t reveal themselves either, but out of the corner of your eye you see splashes and the glimmer of fins.

You whisper to the water about Iris’ groundbreaking research into mermaid intelligence, and about how you approve of May’s new suitor, who’s worked on your boat before. You give updates regarding your business, gossip about the new house you’re working for, and speculate on the plans the fishermen who still fish for mermaids may have. When you awaken the next morning, your nets are almost always brimming with fish. Sometimes you find a lone, silver fin tied to the rope.

Things do not settle. The bite on your shoulder throbs too much for that to happen.


End file.
